Lost Lost Lost

Lost Lost Lost, the trendy music blog for trendy people, asked if I might be able to make a poster for their club night that's on at the Salutation next week. I quickly whipped something up using an illustration of a bird that I'd drawn previously, and a bit of fabric that I wove while at university. Here it is!

Again, if you'd like a poster doing for your event, send us over an email! I'm completely free of charge, unless you're Live Nation or something, in which case I might ask for some money.

E x

Skyscrapers of the Midwest

Firstly, let me admit straight away that I don't know anything about comics. There are a few comics that I have particularly enjoyed in the past, though. Trains are Mint by Oliver East is one of these. Another one is Midnight Sun by Ben Towle, which involves a) almost real historical events and b) airships, so it ticks all the boxes for me. Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua W. Cotter is the one I particularly wanted to talk about today though.

I bought the 4 issues of it separately when they came out, and then I was bought the book as a present. You probably won't be able to find the individual issues, but the book is probably available on Amazon, or you can find it by clicking on the bit where I said 'Skyscrapers of the Midwest' up there.

Anyway, the comic's about an adolescent cat and his younger brother. Well, they're kind of cats. Or humans with cat ears. That bit's not really important. This particular cat/human is a bit of a loser. He doesn't really have any friends and nothing good ever seems to happen to him. The majority of the story is spent lurching from one disaster to another. It's pretty heartbreaking stuff!

In between the main narrative, there's comic strips, fake advertisements and an agony uncle column with a guy called Skinny Kenny, whose advice is usually either wholly inappropriate, insensitive, or both. I'm going to attempt to describe one of the strips that I particularly like now: mouse in a shirt and tie says to his wife 'I'm off. I'll be back in time for supper. Unless, of course, I'm consumed'.

All in all, it's a pretty bleak tale. And then at the end something really lovely happens and it'll probably make you want to cry, because it definitely made me want to cry. I'm a sucker for coming-of-age type stuff, so I tend to well up at things like this. Sometimes when I'm in a grump I like to read the last ten or so pages and then I always feel better.

I'm not going to try and describe it anymore because this isn't going especially well. Just buy it! Or if you know me, ask me if you can borrow it from me. Joshua W Cotter does other things too and I'd heartily recommend going over to his site to have a look at some of his illustrations and comic strips and things. Here's one! Also, if Joshua W Cotter is reading this and you'd like me to remove your images, just let me know and I'll get rid. Many thanks.

Young Explorer Stuff

One day we're hoping to be able to retire and live off the money we make from selling zines and badges and things. Now you're able to help us achieve this goal! We now have an Etsy page where you can buy the zine and badges and things like that. Eventually we'll have other things for sale, so start saving up some cash.

If you have a look over on the right hand side of this here page, you'll be able to see some little thumbnail type pictures of the stuff you can buy. Or you can just CLICK ON THIS LINK.

(y)

Manchester School of Art Degree Show 2012

We went to see (a part of) the MMU art degree show yesterday, the bit that was at Quay House. Here are our favourite bits! If there's a picture of your work here and you don't want it to be, let us know and we'll take it down, soz.

Ruth Beesley

Shuk Yin Law

Ali Neilly

Ela Niznik

Katherine Lees

I Liked You Straight Away

Those of you who bought the zine might remember that we wrote a bit about the Middle Ones, and mentioned that they were going to be on tour with Jack 'Lesser' Lewis' Awkward Energy. Well, last night was the Manchester leg of the tour.

We never tire of seeing the Middle Ones, even though we've probably seen them about thirty times or something daft like that. Their new songs sound great, and they have a new album called 'Slow and Steady' that you can buy if you click on the bit that says 'Slow and Steady' back there.

I always thought of Jack Lewis as the sexier Lewis brother, but last night I came to realise that I think I probably prefer him to his more famous sibling. He was great! His album, which is out on the same label as the Middle Ones' thingy, can be bought here.

That's the album cover next to this bit of writing. At the end of Awkward Energy's set, they got Grace and Anna from the Middle Ones to do a bit of backing vocals and it was a lovely end to the proceedings.

If you happen to be reading this and you a) live in Liverpool and b) have no plans for this evening, I'd suggest that you go to Mello Mello this evening and see the Middle Ones. Jack Lewis is going home today, so he won't be there, but the Middle Ones will definitely be worth going to see.

Beluga Whale

One of us was asked to do a poster for a house gig that's happening in a few weeks. Here it is! It's at our friend Natalie's lovely canal-side house and I'm sure you'd be welcome to attend. Trust Fund used to be in the Bumblebees, who were pretty good, and Trust Fund sounds exciting too, like No Kids on a budget. That's a good thing!

Two White Cranes, I think, is Roxy who used to (Or still might even be) in the Mountain Parade and she used to be called Roxanne: The Early Years as well, if I remember rightly. Have a listen! Ratfangs, I've just learned, is Dominic from the Bell Peppers and Boy or Bison and probably millions of other bands besides.

If you want the more artistically talented half of Young Explorer to do a poster for your gig/night/bah mitzvah, send us an email* or tweet us or something.

* it sounded better in my head AT gmail dot com (sorry, i've had the email address since I was about 15 and have never thought of anything better)

See yer!

Moonrise Kingdom

We went to see the new Wes Anderson film the other day at the Cornerhouse. It was pretty good. Why not have a look at the trailer that we've helpfully embedded just under this writing? We reckon that if the zine/blog were a film, it'd be a lot like Moonrise Kingdom. Sadly we're nowhere near as cool as the two young explorers in the film.

I wanted to go and see Iron Sky, the new film about Nazis living on the moon, too, but sadly the Cornerhouse only had one screening of it and I didn't realise until too late. I think it might be out on DVD already, though, (A sure sign of its quality) so I'll be purchasing that from Amazon when payday comes.